“Struggles with math often prevent students on track to meet that goal, experts said.
‘Students need math courses relevant to their job aspirations,’ said Jennifer Saenz of StriveTogether, a nonprofit supporting kids from birth through the workforce.
‘For instance, Texas public schools offer a variety of advanced math classes, such as statistics, which help nurses understand drug dosages and patient vital sign data,’ Saenz said.
‘What we actually heard from our health and science industry was that, no, we don’t want calculus. We want statistics,’ she said.
Saenz successfully championed a bill two years ago that mandates automatic enrollment in advanced math for sixth-grade students scoring in the top 40% on their fifth-grade math assessment.”